Castles That Crumble

four

"What dress would you like to wear today, princess?" Julie is holding up two dresses. The first one is blue and gold, the other is orange and silver.

"I'll do the blue and gold one." Julie nods and starts dressing me. "So, what's the plans for today, princess?" I look at myself in the mirror. "I'm not sure." Julie crinkles her nose and starts working on my hair.

Once Julie is finished getting me ready, I step out of my chambers.

I'm walking down the long hallway when I'm stopped by a familiar voice. Harry. I turn around, prepared to greet him.

"Hello." I lower my head, even though he is not royalty, I still pay my respects. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Harry stops and bows his whole body. "Would you like to have lunch this evening?"

I gasp and cover my mouth. "Pardon me?" Harry rethinks what he has just said. "No, not like that. To discuss Nicolas" I nod my head. "I have no concern for Nicolas." Harry sighs. "Please, just come and hear me out." "I'll think about it."

I spin back around thinking about Harry's offer. On the bright side, It would get me out of lunch with my parents, but I'm not sure what Harry has to say. The last thing I need right now is Harry telling me Nicolas doesn't want to marry me anymore.

Could Nicolas change his mind about marrying me? Without him, would I be unwed forever? I'm sure I wouldn't.

I walk to my reading room and greet my ladies. "Anne, Catherine, Victoria." I smile. It's always great to see my ladies. I've known them for a long time and I'm comfortable with them, I can tell them things I wouldn't - or couldn't tell to my family.

I sit down on the soft sofa. "How's your morning going, Mary?" Catherine asks, while putting a hand on mine. "Well, Harry just asked me to lunch." Anne's face turns white. I'm not sure why though, maybe it's something bad she had for breakfast.

"Not like that." I quickly clarify. "He wants to talk about Nicolas and our future marriage, I assume" "Well, are you going?" Victoria asks. I shrug my shoulders. "I'm not sure, what if he says some terrible news I don't know how to react to?" Victoria smirks. "You should go. Stir up some drama." Catherine takes her hand off mine. "I wonder if Nicolas knows he asked you?" Catherine asks. I shrug my shoulders again.

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"Mary, where are you off to?" My mother asks. "Just going for a stroll." I lied. I was really going outside to meet Harry, for lunch. I had been thinking about this all morning. What would harry talk to me about? Would it be important that I had to know, but not important enough that my parents wouldn't know?

I step onto the covered porch smiling at Harry. "Afternoon." He says, standing up to greet me. After he greets me, we both sit down.

"I hope you like sandwiches, that's the only thing I know how to make." I laugh. "Why didn't you have the servants make you something?" Harry looks up. "I tried, they said they don't take orders from the Scots." I raise an eyebrow. "If I were there, I would have put them in their place. What on earth gave them the nerve?" I ask, taking a bite out of my sandwich.

A couple of minutes of silence go by, and I look up at Harry. "So, why'd you call me here?" Harry stops chewing and sits up straight.

"Nicolas doesn't hate you. It may seem like it, but he just doesn't trust you." I give Harry a puzzled look. "I know after what I said about your country, it could be hard to trust me, but his hatred for me seems way bigger than a tiny comment I made."

Harry looks at me. "Before you were born, Nicolas's mother was married to your father." My heart drops. My father had a wife before my mother? "Explain?" I ask. "Well, your father soon tired of her, and executed her, because of her failure to give him heirs." My eyes widen.

"Nicolas is a royal, yes, but he hates them. He hates what he is. He hates every single vein pumping through his body. Most of all, he hates what your father did to his mother."

How could my father? I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Why are you telling me this?" I command. "So you can understand, so you can understand what Nicolas is going through and why he catches such attitude with royals."

I finish my sandwich and run off. I sit in my chambers, unsure of what to do, who to tell. Just this morning, I talked about how I could tell my ladies anything. Could I tell them this? Could I trust them enough?

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I slam open the huge double doors to the throne room. "Clear the room!" I scream. A few nobles jumped, and once everyone was out the guards shut the doors. "How could you?" I yell, pacing back and forth. "How could you do that to Nicolas's mother?"

My father starts to talk but I stop him. "Don't. I already know why. I know the truth. How could you?" I say still screaming. "How could you?" This time, silently, a whisper.

My father comes closer. "You must understand. We needed heirs to secure the kingdom. Without heirs the -"

"Stop. You needed heirs. You let her die. No, You killed her! Why? Because she couldn't bare your disgusting self children? I don't blame her. I don't blame her one bit. I don't see how mother does it."

I have tears streaming down my face, I'm struggling to breathe and I'm pacing back and forth with my mind everywhere, when the doors open and the guard announces the Prince of Scotland.

I keep pacing back and forth, not stopping to greet the prince, after all, he hates me. My father tries to comfort me, to not look like the villain in this but I step away and yell, "When I become queen, my first duty will be to bring you down! And you will lie in the cold ground next to her!"

I didn't specify who "her" was, in fear of making Nicolas upset, instead I yelled and ran out the room. Who knows why Nicolas was entering that room in the first place. But whatever he was going to say, was held back because of me screaming and acting a fool. Once again, I humiliated myself.